# Trouble using a time series of Gaussian .cube files

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-using-a-time-series-of-gaussian-cube-files/17386
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [December 29, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-using-a-time-series-of-gaussian-cube-files/17386 "2025-12-29T20:05:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Isa\_H](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/isa_h/32/17381_2.png) [@Isa\_H](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Isa_H)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-using-a-time-series-of-gaussian-cube-files/17386/1 "2025-12-29T20:05:47Z")

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Hi! I have a series of Gaussian .cube files in which atomic positions vary from file to file. I would like to make a visualization showing how electron density/molecular orbitals change as a function of bond length in a diatomic molecule. While I have had success visualizing both individual and overlapping cube files, I am having trouble visualizing a series of cube files as a time series.

I have formatted the filenames with the convention N.foo.cube, and the Paraview file picker dialogue recognizes the list of files as a group. Despite this, after I open the group no time-series is added to the animation time manager. Are time-series not supported for this file-type, or am I missing something?

Thanks!

 ![screenshot251229_144845](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/3X/f/b/fbbd9d775332c16cf2058defd9a2934a4926bbc7.png)

 ![screenshot251229_150120](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/3X/6/4/64533fe8fc74f3051682497e0ca21d2a5a9909aa.png)

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### Author: ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/cory.quammen/32/11193_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2026, 11:39am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-using-a-time-series-of-gaussian-cube-files/17386/2 "2026-01-05T11:39:54Z")

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Welcome to the ParaView community, @Isa_H!

The Guassian reader does not support reading time series directly (vtkGaussianCubeReader2) or indirectly using ParaView’s generic time series mechanism. I suspect it wouldn’t be too difficult to add. Would you mind creating an issue at [https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues) with a request to add time series support for Gaussian files? I can’t guarantee it will be implemented in a certain time frame, but it will keep the issue from being forgotten.

Beyond that, would you be interested in contributing code changes to make time series support possible?